Re: DNA

The DNA passsed through the maternal line is quite different from that past through the male line.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed by a mother to both male and femaleoffspring without any mixing, so your mtDNA is the same as your mother'smtDNA, which is the same as her mother's mtDNA. mtDNA changes very slowly soit cannot determine close relationships as well as it can determine generalrelatedness. If two people have an exact match in their mtDNA, then there is a very good chance they share a common maternal ancestor, but it is hard to determine if this is a recent ancestor or one who lived hundreds or even thousands of years ago. It is important to keep in mind with this test that a male's mtDNA comes only from his mother and is not passed on to hisoffspring.

Y Line Tests - More recently, the Y chromosome in the nuclear DNA is being used to establish family ties. The Y chromosomal DNA test (usually referred to as Y DNA or Y-Line DNA) is only available for males, since the Y chromosome is only passed down the male line from father to son. Tiny chemical markers on the Y chromosome create a distinctive pattern, known asa haplotype, that distinguishes one male lineage from another. Shared markers can indicate relatedness between two men, though not the exact degree of the relationship. Y chromosome testing is most often used by individuals with the same last name to learn if they share a common ancestor.